An electrical connector assembly is known having a pair of latching springs secured within a shell enclosing an electrical connector; one such connector assembly is the AMPLIMITE HDP Crimp Snap-In Contact connector sold by AMP Incorporated, Harrisburg, Pa. The latching springs extend forwardly from a pivot section midway along the body section to latching forward ends at the mating face of the connector assembly to latch with and be delatchable from corresponding posts of a mating connector. The latching springs include actuator sections exposed along the sides of the shell to be manually depressed to pivot the spring bodies and thus moving the latching forward ends apart to engage with and disengage from the posts during connector mating and unmating. During mating the spring latches are actuated by manual depression of the actuators to pivot outwardly the latching forward ends to pass by either conical or frustoconical forward ends of the posts as the connectors are urged together to mate, whereafter the actuators are released. The latching forward end of each spring latch is claw-like and includes a short transverse foot having a large wide notch thereinto to facilitate passing by the enlarged head, whereafter the transverse foot seats in the annular groove of the post just rearwardly of the forward post end. The spring latch is made of stainless steel alloy having a thickness of about 0.012 in., to have spring characteristics enabling deflection during mating to maintain at moderate levels the forces of resistance to mating generated by engagement of the spring latches with the posts during mating.
It is desired to eliminate the need to depress the actuator sections during mating while maintaining the retention strength of the latching springs against accidental unmating.